Review of rail guidelines – Tarcoola-Darwin rail and the South Australian rail access regimes

30 Oct 2019

The Commission has reviewed the Guidelines relating to the Tarcoola-Darwin railway and the South Australian intrastate railway. The reviews were conducted in accordance with the Railways (Operations and Access) Act 1997 and the AustralAsia Railway (Third Party Access) Act 1999 (Code).

The Commission’s Final Decision on the guidelines for the Tarcoola-Darwin railway retained guidance on principles for calculating floor and ceiling prices and incremental cost, which apply in the case of arbitration, and included amendments relating to the treatment of expected inflation and the calculation of the risk premium. The Final Decision also made minor modifications to improve clarity and readability. Those findings are reflected in Guidelines 1, 2 and 3, which have been released with the Final Decision.

The Commission’s Final Decision on the guidelines for the South Australian intrastate railway has retained guidance on pricing principles, retained existing information requirements for the access provider, updated the coverage and transparency of information relating to railway infrastructure, and made minor modifications to improve clarity and readability. Those findings are reflected in the Access Information and Pricing Principles Guideline, and Reporting and Compliance Guideline.